Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Best scope covers to use in hunting situations?

Oh God, Laffin' MAO!

That is hilarious.

Now, we're just missing Elaine.

ROTF here !

LMMFAO!!

"Is it a lie, if you really believe it" ?

TFF!!!!!!!!!

No soup for you!! You come back one year!!

Stoney skipped the MD and went straight to the hard stuff.

Well, now that is has calmed somewhat, I thought I would address exterior scope fogging and its causes.

Aside from rain, fog, slop and goo that may fall directly on scope lenses in the field, hunters are additionally plagued by "fogging" on exterior scope lenses. Fogging is simply the condensation of water on the scope lenses and body for precisely the same reasons as forms the morning dew. The "dewpoint" of air is the temperature at which it can no longer hold water as vapor, condensing from vapor to liquid water.

Humidity is the weight of water vapor contained in a defined weight of air. Warm air can hold more water vapor than cold air. When a surface such as the ground, or an auto windshield, or your scope lense cools the air touching it to the point that the air can no longer hold vapor, the water vapor condenses onto the cold surface as "fog" or frost.

What makes your scope surfaces cooler than the surrounding air? Interestingly, all earthly objects both absorb and radiate heat (IR) radiation. Dark colored objects absorb and radiate faster than light colored objects. The great majority of riflescopes are beautiful, basic black. Thus our black scope body will absorb heat energy rapidly from the sun, but will radiate that energy back into space at night or on dreary rainy or snowy days much faster than does the air surrounding it. (Most air being clear rather than black!) This faster loss of heat energy by the riflescope compared to the air around it, in addition to the cooling effect of physical evaporation of rain or snow water on the scope, may drop the scope temperature below the dewpoint, and, presto, everything gets covered in "fog".

What to do? The first step is to attempt to physically separate ambient air from the scope surfaces. Flip-up type lense covers will provide a barrier over the lenses, but allow the whole surface of the scope body to cool by irradiation and evaporation, which in turn will cool the lenses. Lenses cooler than the dewpoint will fog.

Flip-ups also come with other problems, including sometimes clumsy operation in pressing the separate release buttons, one fore and one aft, legendary problems with them falling off in the field, breaking in scabbards, or actually trapping moisture or debris between the flip-up lense and the scope lense.

The most effective approach is the full ScopeShield neoprene cover, which keeps the ambient air, moisture and debris away from all of the scope surfaces. This sort of insulation also slows evaporative and radiational cooling, minimizing the risk of the scope becoming a sort of little refrigerator, destined to fog.

Well, I'll be the azzhole who says (again) that the BC's have worked pretty well for me. Flipping them open is just a muscle-memory thing. Properly sized, they won't fall off.

Mostly though, I can't be slingshotting a cover off my scope with a wary buck 25 yards away doing the "I see you but I'm not sure what you are" gig.

Different strokes. Not dissing your covers; just don't like to see the BC's bashed unfairly. I know you have to contrast the mechanics of your system against existing ones... but IMHO you are overstating the "problems" with BC's.

What's funny is that the fight that first put me on the out's with the Alaska crowd (at that time) and their posse back in '07 when I first joined, was me saying I'd had BC's leak on me. Which they have.

Ironic....

[Hi Jeff! No one is an azzhole for saying BC's have worked pretty well for you, particularly when they have! Many have had long and good service from them. The focus seems to be on the most recent years where changes were made in their construction. My experience falls in that range, culminating in one exasperating experience that caused me to discard them forever...and they weren't even defective!

It was after that when I stumbled across a ScopeShield, hunted a full season, then tracked down Jon Stram the inventor and went into business. The campfire is a terrific place to bring ALL experience together for the benefit of members who want every side of opinion and experience available. Note that many members would not agree that the problems with BC's are overstated, while many others would. That is the very discussion that the originator of this thread wished to see!

Incidentally, the ScopeShield does not require the "slingshot" method when up very close, as I have been. When that buck walks up behind you, it is effortlessly, and silently, removed in slow motion if need.

Thanks for being a good and very civil member of the 'fire.

[/quote]

Unless the ScopeShield forms a gas tight seal between lens and air, damp air will penetrate and fog the scope or get liquid water on it at times of high humidity cold. Saturated air close to freezing temp is tough. A good test would be to walk around in brush for an hour in 100% humidity 33 degree rain with a ScopeShield on the rifle, then hop in a vehicle for a one mile drive, then get out in the rain and hunt some more.

If the ScopeShield does form a gas tight seal over the scope lenses, it only protects the scope until the cover comes off. Then saturated air has access to the glass and will be locked in next to the lens when the cover goes back on.

What about fitting a Michael's style rubber sealing disc inside the ends of the ScopeShield?

Fir needles "comb" water out of saturated air, forming drops large enough to drip from each needle every minute or so. Liquid water forms on virtually every surface, every hair and fiber, yet it is not raining. That's a different problem.

I'm glad you are working on a solution. Our extremely wet conditions represent a small minority of hunters and small a market. Some solutions adequate for a majority don't work as well in specialized needs, as is normal for most of life.

Well-said Okanogan. An Australian hunter, later a customer, observed a common problem similar to the experiment you describe above. Transiting in an air-conditioned vehicle (cool scope and surfaces) then hopping out into warm, highly humid air, the scope would fog right up. It would of course be temporary, but if you hopped out to shoot, it was vexing.

I can't imagine the little insulative value of the ScopeShield helped dramatically, but I have not heard back from him. It certainly didn't hurt.

We had not thought of a Michael's style sealing disc as an approach. Gotta love the campfire!

How did we ever get to the [bleep] moon?

I think you are about to get an explanation whether you like it or not!

Laffin..